Calvered Salmon with Beaten Butter

This was served as part of the second course at the Ymir 2023 feast.

Introduction

Salmon poached in a spiced court bouillon of wine, water, and vinegar, then cooled in its broth and served cold with beaten butter. Calvering is an Elizabethan poaching technique that produces firm, cleanly flavored fish, and serving it intentionally cold was a practical advantage at feast scale, since cold-by-design is considerably tastier than warm-fish-that-has-gone-tepid in transit from kitchen to hall.

The beaten butter is a unique piece of late-period technique: an emulsified butter sauce made by melting butter into boiling water and beating until thick, then sharpened with sour orange juice. The method is surprisingly modern and produces a stable emulsion without flour or egg yolks.

Sources

Robert May, The Accomplisht Cook (1660) — Calvered Salmon

To Calver Salmon to be eaten hot or cold. Chine it, and cut each side into two or three peices according to the bigness, wipe it clean from the blood and not wash it; then have as much wine and water as you imagine will cover it, make the liquor boil, and put in a good handful of salt; when the liquor boils put in the salmon, and boil it up quick with a quart of white-wine vinegar, keep up the fire stiff to the last, and being througly boild, which will be in the space of half an hour or less, then take it off the fire and let it cool, take it up into broad bottomed earthen pans, and being quite cold, which will be in a day, a night, or twelve hours, then put in the liquor to it, and so keep it. Some will boil in the liquor some rosemary bound up in a bundle hard, two or three cloves, two races of slict ginger, three or four blades of large mace, and a lemon peel.

Sir Kenelme Digby, The Closet of the Eminently Learned Sir Kenelme Digbie Kt. Opened (1669) — Beaten Butter

Take two or three spoons of water or stock into a pipkin. There must be no more than even to cover the bottom of the pipkin. Make this boil by itself, as soon as it does so, put to this half a pound of sweet butter, let it melt gently, or suddenly, it imports not, so as the liquor boiled when you put the butter in; when the butter is melted then take it from the fire, and holding the handle in your hand, shake it round a good whip and strongly, and it will come to be thick as it cools, that you may almost cut it with a knife. Then squeeze juice of lemon into it, or of sharp Orange, or Verjuyce or Vinegar, and heat it again as much as you please upon the fire. It will ever after continue thick, and never again, upon any heating, grow oily, though it be cold and heated again 20 times.

Discussion

The Salmon

• The court bouillon was simmered for 30 to 60 minutes with cloves, fresh ginger, and salt before the fish went in. The temperature was then reduced to 175 to 185 degrees for poaching, gentler than May’s “boil it up quick,” but better for controlling doneness across multiple batches of fillets.
• The salmon was poached in batches to a final internal temperature of 140 degrees, about 8 minutes per batch depending on thickness. After poaching, the fillets were placed in pans, covered with cooled broth, and refrigerated until service.
• This was the most expensive single dish on the menu: 18 pounds of salmon at nearly $229 in the budget. The cost was justified by the fact that fish is a traditional component of a substantial Elizabethan feast, and the calvering technique made it practical to prepare well in advance.

The Beaten Butter

• The method is exactly as Digby describes: boiling water, butter melted in, then beaten vigorously until thick. I used an immersion blender rather than shaking the pan by hand, which achieves the same emulsion with less effort at scale.
• I used sour orange juice (also called bitter orange or Seville orange juice) rather than lemon, verjuice, or vinegar. Sour orange juice is available online, sold primarily for Caribbean and Latin American cooking as a common ingredient in mojo marinades. When sourcing it, check that you are buying straight juice rather than a pre-mixed marinade.
• Digby’s claim that the sauce will ever after continue thick and never again grow oily is largely accurate. The emulsion is remarkably stable, which made it a practical choice for feast service since it could be made ahead and reheated without breaking.

“

Sources